Arcdh
GD on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention, report by the High Commissioner on DPRK
20 March 2024 .
Gross violations of human rights continue in Iran and are worsening daily; minority nations are more and more marginalized with poverty and misery being rampant. In the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan, the number of unemployed is increasing every day. According to government statistics, 60% of the people of Azerbaijan live below the poverty line; protesting this leads to imprisonment.
Today, the prisons of Tabriz, Ardabil and a part of Evin are full of young Azerbaijanis and elderly people like 76-year-old lawyer Parviz Siyabi, who demand the right to education in their mother tongue, the right to work and the right to live with human dignity in order to defend the environment.
A hopeless younger generation are drawn to addiction and suicide is so common, sadly it is now unremarkable.
The impacts on Azerbaijani children are grave and diverse; illiteracy is rising due to the lack of education in the mother tongue and poverty results in children having to drop out of education.
Tragically, schoolgirls drop out as child marriage has become a way out of poverty.
The natural wealth from Azerbaijani mines, such as gold and copper, is plundered and the profits taken out of the area. The overwhelming evidence shows that the destruction of Lake Urmia was a deliberate act of the Iranian authorities.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its supporters are looking for conflicts between nations in our region; we hope that these plans will not come to fruition.